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The Rising Tide is a main quest in The White March - Part II. It is automatically obtained after completing The Iron Flail.

Synopsis[ | ]

After resolving the situation at the Iron Flail Fort, the Watcher sets out to investigate the two visions during the Iron Flail:

To find answers, the Watcher must journey to the Abbey of the Fallen Moon, hidden far up in the mountains of the White March.

Walkthrough[ | ]

Infiltrating the Abbey[ | ]

Option 1 - Pose as the Tidebringer
  • Approach any of the sentries and convince the guards that you're the Tidebringer with Resolve 14 (intimidate them into moving the bed outside if they cause you to tarry), Perception 13 (leveraging the hidden nature of the Abbey), or Lore 6 (mentioning the Mecwyn's Tide).
  • Locate and talk to Kaoto in the Halls of Presence, inside the Abbey. Avoid talking about either the Reliquary or the Eyeless, otherwise Kaoto will become hostile and attack.
  • You must pass a recitation ritual, and the required lore can be found in three places (alternatively can pass the ritual without first gathering clues with a Lore 10 check).
  • Return to Kaoto to begin the ritual of recitation:
    • "I am Saman - the Flood."
    • "I give myself, for a Giftbearer has no other tokens to offer."
    • "I have none, for all that belongs to Ondra is forgotten."
  • Having passed the ritual, Kaoto teaches you the Sign of the Tide, and will admit you to the Halls of Silence. He'll give you two keys:
Option 2 - Sneak inside
  • If you'd rather not jump through hoops, you can skip most of the Halls of Presence, Kaoto's recitation ritual and the entire Abbey courtyard area, by going straight to The Halls of Silence via the outcropping in the southeastern corner of the exterior area.
  • From the entrance, go past Long Bosc and continue east. You'll have to wait for a pair of Ondrites to move out of the way, after they have a brief conversation. Simply sneak in range of them for the conversation to start. Once they moved out of the way, you may continue to a large rock formation south of the giant skeleton hand.
  • Interact with the rock and swing across the chasm using a Rope and Grappling Hook and a Dexterity 18 check on any party member to cast the hook.
  • Once inside, you can proceed as below but with one caveat: you won't have the "Sign of the Tide", a gesture only known by the High Abbot which is used to complete a puzzle further ahead. You can come back to this later if needed:
  • Pick the large door to the southwest of the Pool of the Anointed, then head south and up the stairs to the Halls of Presence (you'll have to defeat a few Ondrites on the way). Once you're upstairs, enter scouting mode and stick to the left wall, heading north down the hallway. A few monks will be situated immediately to the east of the stairs, another pair patrol the area and will spot you if you stick around.
    • If you have sufficient Mechanics, continue past the break in the wall towards the high abbot's quarters. You can simply pick the lock on the door (Difficulty 10), then loot the Journal of the High Abbot from the trapped chest at the back of the room. Read the journal to learn the Sign of the Tide.
    • Otherwise you'll have to take a more direct approach, take a left and confront Kaoto, who attacks you immediately. After the fight is over, read his soul to learn the Sign, or steal the key from the vase on the table and loot his quarters as above.
  • Once you've learned the sign, retrace your steps and head back downstairs.

The Halls of Silence[ | ]

  • Enter The Halls of Silence and make your way to the Pool of the Anointed, the large circular room with a chasm in the middle. If you entered from the Halls above, a key can be found on a table near the door, though you'll already have one if you took the Tidebringer route.
  • Interact with the lever on the wall. All nearby cells will open with a shriek, and the monks will come rushing out to the source of the noise. They'll become hostile when the gate finishes opening, so prepare for a battle or quickly sneak/run away to the nearby cave on the right until the noise subsides and the monks will return peacefully to their cells.
  • Enter the gate you opened. Speak with Farentis, the previous High Abbot. He will ask that you open the gates to let the Low Tide escape, and will give you the key to the door behind him. Careful since the monks beyond are hostile.
  • Make your way to The Rising Waterway and solve the picture puzzle, containing scenes of an ocean shoreline. The solution to the puzzle is the same as that of the mural outside the abbey, though you don't need to know it in advance:
    1. City in flames
    2. Tidal wave
    3. Barren shore
    4. Flourishing city
    5. Then perform the "Sign of the Tide" as learned earlier.
  • Walk across the newly-raised walkway and continue to the Chamber of Tears. Use the lever found there. You have two choices of action:
    • [Point the object towards the open gate]
      Open the gates and let the Low Tide escape. This will make Kaoto and his High Tide hostile.
    • [Point the object towards the rising wave]
      Perform the Rising and flood the Lower Tide quarters, drowning them to make way for a new cycle of Tide. This nets you a lot of loot from their drowned corpses.
  • Either way you'll receive Ondra's Witness.
  • Head back to Kaoto (assuming he isn't already dead) or go directly to the Reliquary. To get there, enter the Halls of Presence and use the stairs to the southeast for the Reliquary.
    • If you meet with Kaoto, you will meet and then fight him at the Veil of Tears. Depending on your dialogue choices, a few of the Ondrites may turn on him and help you in the fight.
    • If you go directly to the Reliquary, there is no fight with Kaoto at the Veil of Tears and you may leave quietly after the events that follow. But if you go back to talk to Kaoto after the Veil he will attack you for going to the Veil without him - there will be no option to convince some of the Ondrites to fight with you.
  • Enter the Reliquary grounds and interact with the metal piece found inside the mouth of the skull. This will result in another vision:
Shard vision

The heat spreads to the world around you, turns it orange and then yellow and then white. The ground, the sky, everything around you drips in molten globs and begins to take shape beneath you as if in an invisible mold.

You and the shard are the last things to melt and fall, and your addition to the molten pool completes the shape of an immense hammer.

The metal cools as quickly as it had heated. The handle is gripped now by two great leathery hands, and the hammer is cocked back over a shoulder as broad and mottled as a hilltop.

The wielder whirls around and heaves the hammer, and you are flying upward for what seems like ages into the airless blackness above. As you spin, you catch glimpses of a rock large enough to be a moon. It is close, far too close to the world...

The force of the impact shatters hammer and stone alike. The rock is redirected outward, but a section of the front face is cleaved off and begins to fall, splintering apart at the cracks.

In a hundred thousand fragments blossoming outward in all directions, debris showers the atmosphere, trailing smoke and fire.

Below, land and sea are far off, but gradually rising up.

[Look to the sea]

The largest of the fragments, wide as a city, barrels downward in a fiery cocoon. Its size reduces as the edges immolate, but it won't burn up in time.

It lands silently in the distant ocean, sending a column of water skyward and radiating ripples that spread like wrinkles in fabric.

Then the sound comes tearing up through the sky. It sounds like thunder.

[Look to the land]

Features are becoming clearer by the moment as you streak toward the earth. You are lodged in an enormous boulder, falling among other smaller fragments that heat and burst around you on all sides.

Beneath you, snow-capped mountains rise up, dotted here and there by cities of stone and adra. The impact will be the destruction of all of them.

The shadow of your rock fragment is visible now, getting larger by the second.

You are moments away from striking the ground when a massive shape throws itself into your path.

The last thing you hear sounds like another rumbling impact, but that isn't what it is. It's a chuckle, relieved, breathless. You hear two words:

"Made it."

  • Commune with Ondra. She will be angered at you pulling out fragments of Abydon and taking them for your own... Though through the anger you'll be able to identify bits and pieces of history that were supposed to be left forgotten.
    • Passing certain checks for, Lore 4 and Perception 12 will give you extra dialogue options with Ondra:
      • Intellect (17): "Be that as it may, I must reject your moral paradigm because it engenders an incomplete conception of the good that fails to consider the importance of testing the soul." and then you can answer "Your supposition that peace of mind is tantamount to the overall good is a flawed premise. Empirically we know that struggle and inner turmoil strengthen the soul as often as they strangle it." followed by "I submit to you that life is a framework to test the soul, and that an untested soul withers from disuse. Consequently, it is better to test the soul in order that it should thrive. If it breaks, it is no worse off than if it were not tested at all."
      • Another Intellect 14 check allows you to ask about the Eyeless and point out that she isn't telling the truth - that she made Abydon forget them, so that he would remain ignorant of the manner in which he died.
      • Finally, the Perception 12 check allows you to learn that Ondra did, in fact, love Abydon, although the feeling was doomed from the moment she decided to wipe Engwith out, making kith forget the secrets of the gods - and preserving their own divinity.
  • Eventually, you will be able to ask her to call off the Eyeless, which will prove impossible. Ondra will tell you to go to Cayron's Scar, where their lair is, to see what you can do. She will suggest reforging Abydon's Hammer as a way to attract the Eyeless.
  • The Rising Tide will be complete. You automatically get the next quest, Lair of the Eyeless.

Gallery[ | ]

Journal[ | ]

quests\px2_critical_path\px2_cp_abbey_moon
ID Objectives
0 The Rising Tide
10000 The Abbey of the Fallen Moon may hold the key to stopping the army I have seen in my dreams.
1 Travel to the Abbey of the Fallen Moon.
10001 One of Stalwart's delegates sent to parley with the Iron Flail was an Ondrite dispatched from an abbey to the north to try and dissuade the Readcerans from their course.

It seemed as though the leader of the abbey, a man named Kaoto, knew how to call off the monstrous army. He mentioned that would be done in "the reliquary."

He also spoke of an expected visitor, a "Tidebringer," who would take his place.

From the Ondrite's soul, I was able to absorb knowledge of the path to the abbey. I must travel there if I am to stop this threat.

2 Infiltrate the Abbey of the Fallen Moon.
10002 The abbey is well guarded by Ondrite monks. They will have to be dealt with, or slipped past.
20002 I ran into the mercenary escort of a Giftbearer. He believes there are several ways inside the abbey. He said his mistress spoke with some guards beneath a broken archway, who let her through.
3 Find out how to reach the reliquary.
10003 The abbey is vast. I must determine the location of the reliquary I saw in the Ondrite's memory, and see about getting inside to call off this army.

Kaoto, the abbot who spoke to the Ondrite in the vision, appears to know how to enter.

20026 The high abbot, believing me to be the Tidebringer, intends to show me the reliquary. But he requires that I complete a recitation first.
20028 Kaoto advised me to examine the library as well as a mural outside, and to speak with Giftbearers to gain insight.
20004 I found a book in the abbey library, "The Giftbearer's Pilgrimage" that tells of the burdens of being a Giftbearer. The lessons contained within may prove valuable.
20005 Outside the abbey there is a mural that depicts phases of the tide as they wash over an ocean shore. The mural is a quadriptych, and each section is labeled. There is Anthu: The End, Saman: The Flood, Disaman: The Ebb, and Dianthu: The Beginning.
20019 I spoke to a Giftbearer who imparted to me that all things forgotten belong to Ondra, and that all things that belong to Ondra are forgotten.
20016 I found a record of a recurring dream of the high abbot. It showed him performing a strange sign before four panels, then retrieving a rod-like relic from a nearby device and using it to pass through a doorway of water into a walled enclosure somewhere outside the abbey.
20021 I glimpsed an important memory of the high abbot. It showed him performing a strange sign before four panels in an underground hallway, then retrieving a rod-like relic from a nearby device and using it to pass through a doorway of water into a walled enclosure somewhere outside the abbey.
20040 I've found a strange set of mechanical panels before a chasm in the Halls of Silence. Despite having arranged them in the proper order, it seems that there's something else I need in order to complete the sequence and trigger whatever mechanism it governs.
4 Enter the Halls of Silence
10004 I won't be able to enter the reliquary without Ondra's Witness, an aspergillum kept in a device on the lower level of the abbey.
20006 I glimpsed an important memory of the high abbot. It showed him performing a strange sign before four panels in an underground hallway, then retrieving a rod-like relic from a nearby device and using it to pass through a doorway of water into a walled enclosure somewhere outside the abbey.
20007 I found an account written by the high abbot about a recurring dream. In the dream, he performed a strange sign before four panels, then retrieved a rod-like relic from a nearby device and used it to pass through a doorway of water somewhere outside the abbey.
20018 I found a record of a recurring dream of the high abbot. It showed him performing a strange sign before four panels, then retrieving a rod-like relic from a nearby device and using it to pass through a doorway of water into a walled enclosure somewhere outside the abbey.
5 Recover Ondra's Witness.
10005 There is an aspergillum called "Ondra's Witness" that functions as a key of sorts to a device that controls the flow of water through the lower floor of the abbey.

It is possible to flood the Halls of Silence with this, but it may also be possible to open gates that would allow the Low Tide Ondrites to escape.

20008 Farentis wishes for the Low Tide to be set free. He said it requires a particular relic that lies in the Halls of Silence and suggested that the high abbot would know how to reach it.
20010 I found a book in the abbey library, "The Giftbearer's Pilgrimage" that tells of the burdens of being a Giftbearer. The lessons contained within may prove valuable.
20011 Outside the abbey there is a mural that depicts phases of the tide as they wash over an ocean shore. The mural is a quadriptych, and each section is labeled. There is Anthu: The End, Saman: The Flood, Disaman: The Ebb, and Dianthu: The Beginning.
20020 I spoke to a Giftbearer who imparted to me that all things forgotten belong to Ondra, and that all things that belong to Ondra are forgotten.
20009 I glimpsed an important memory of the high abbot. It showed him performing a strange sign before four panels in an underground hallway, then retrieving a rod-like relic from a nearby device and using it to pass through a doorway of water into a walled enclosure somewhere outside the abbey.
20012 I found a record of a recurring dream of the high abbot. It showed him performing a strange sign before four panels, then retrieving a rod-like relic from a nearby device and using it to pass through a doorway of water into a walled enclosure somewhere outside the abbey.
20022 Farentis wishes for the Low Tide to be set free. He said it requires a particular relic that lies in the Halls of Silence, the same that Kaoto has sent me to recover and use to flood the halls, Ondra's Witness.
20039 I've found a strange set of mechanical panels before a chasm in the Halls of Silence. Despite having arranged them in the proper order, it seems that there's something else I need in order to complete the sequence and trigger whatever mechanism it governs.
6 Use Ondra's Witness to enter the reliquary.
10006 I have Ondra's Witness in my possession. It may be what I need to access the reliquary.
20013 Kaoto has requested that I bring Ondra's Witness to him as part of the fulfillment of the Rising.
20014 I set the Low Tide free. The other Ondrites will almost certainly disapprove. I'll have to reach the reliquary and use Ondra's Witness to enter without Kaoto's help.
20034 Kaoto is dead. I will have to enter the reliquary on my own.
7 Examine the skull.
10007 The reliquary appears to contain only a single relic - the skull of an immense being.

Somewhere in this enclosure is the means by which Kaoto meant to call off the Eyeless.

8 Complete the Recitation
10008 If I want to continue impersonating this "Tidebringer" and gain access to the reliquary without opposition, the first step is to perform a ritual recitation before Kaoto.
20029 Kaoto advised me to examine the library as well as a mural outside, and to speak with Giftbearers to gain insight.
20030 I found a book in the abbey library, "The Giftbearer's Pilgrimage" that tells of the burdens of being a Giftbearer. The lessons contained within may prove valuable.
20031 Outside the abbey there is a mural that depicts phases of the tide as they wash over an ocean shore. The mural is a quadriptych, and each section is labeled. There is Anthu: The End, Saman: The Flood, Disaman: The Ebb, and Dianthu: The Beginning.
20032 I spoke to a Giftbearer who imparted to me that all things forgotten belong to Ondra, and that all things that belong to Ondra are forgotten.
9 Complete the Recitation and Recover Ondra's Witness
10009 The high abbot explained that after completing the Rising - the same ritual that Farentis mentioned - I'll replace him as leader of the abbey and gain access to the reliquary.

The first step is to perform a ritual recitation before Kaoto. Then I'll be free to return to the Halls of Silence and claim the aspergillum Ondra's Witness for myself.

20033 I completed the recitation. Kaoto now expects me to find Ondra's Witness in the Halls of Silence and use the aspergillum to flood the area. Farentis believes I can instead use this device to save him and his Low Tide Ondrites.
20035 Kaoto advised me to examine the library as well as a mural outside, and to speak with Giftbearers to gain insight.
20036 I found a book in the abbey library, "The Giftbearer's Pilgrimage" that tells of the burdens of being a Giftbearer. The lessons contained within may prove valuable.
20037 Outside the abbey there is a mural that depicts phases of the tide as they wash over an ocean shore. The mural is a quadriptych, and each section is labeled. There is Anthu: The End, Saman: The Flood, Disaman: The Ebb, and Dianthu: The Beginning.
20038 I spoke to a Giftbearer who imparted to me that all things forgotten belong to Ondra, and that all things that belong to Ondra are forgotten.
10 Recover Ondra's Witness.
10010 I've learned how Kaoto performed the Rising. He used a secret sign in the Halls of Silence to reach the aspergillum I need to access the reliquary. While convenient, pretending to be the Tidebringer is no longer necessary.
Unused strings
- 20001 High Abbot Kaoto has spoken to his faithful about the arrival of the Tidebringer. With any luck, the real Tidebringer will not show up until after I've gone.
20003 High Abbot Kaoto has spoken to his faithful about the arrival of the Tidebringer. With any luck, the real Tidebringer will not show up until after I've gone.
20015 I've learned that the high abbot, Kaoto, has been suffering strange nightmares recently and that his quarters lie on the eastern side of The Halls of Silence.
20017 I overheard an exchange between two Ondrites about the high abbot, who used something called "the Witness" to pass through some kind of doorway they called "the Veil of Tears."
20023 The monks of the abbey pointed be to the high abbot, Kaoto, who waits for the Tidebringer beyond a room called the Chamber of the Fallen Moon.
20024 I overheard an exchange between two Ondrites where they revealed that only the high abbot used something called the "Witness" to cross The Veil of Tears, and thus reach The Reliquary.
20025 I glimpsed into the scattered memories of a long dead Ondrite. He was locked alongside other faithful in the Halls of Silence. Their memories eroded over time, driving them to insanity and, strangely, to react violently to the slightest noise.
20027 I seem to have freed a group of maddened Ondrites. The other Ondrites will almost certainly disapprove.
End states
Yes Success
30000 Atop the Abbey of the Fallen Moon, I found the reliquary and the answers I sought. The Eyeless are the army of my dreams. They will destroy me and thousands of others to protect Ondra's secrets.
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